VOL. XI.

No. 3.

commerce

Now the whole world is so linked in the bonds of international that when two nations fail to agree by peaceful negotiation and undertake to settle their disputes by appeal to arms, the whole world feels the shock of conflict and the farmer and the stockbreeder feels the effect of it in the prices they receive for their meat and bread.

War has an enormous appetite and eats large quantities of provisions, and the world is not producing an oversupply of bread and meat these days. A failure of the crops here, a war over yonder on the confines of the world, and all the marts of trade respond to a fear of a scarcity.

Dealers in meats and breadstuffs anticipate a mere insistent demand from hungry people, and speculate on their

belief that it will come, and buy largely, bidding against other dealers who hold to the same belief, each endeavoring to outbid the other until prices are swelled beyond the figures justified by the real conditions.

From the boards of the trade and the exchanges the belief in coming scarcity reaches out to the producers and they in turn catch the infection and conclude to raise more cattle, sow more acres of wheat and plant more acres of corn.

The cattle, hogs and sheep they sell are sold at enhanced prices; wheat goes to the magical figure so long hoped for. "Dollar wheat" sets the blood running with increased speed and hope rises high in the breast of the man who raises wheat to feed the world or corn to feed the cattle and hogs for the people of the earth.

There are those who believe, or profess to believe, the farmer to be a pessimist. Those who have lived with him and entered into his daily life know him to be an optimist of the most pronounced type.

This mistake as to the mental view. point of the farmer arose, originally, from superficial contact with him.

In

the things of the day the farmer is, perhaps, pessimistic. He has a habit of worrying about the weather, the condition of his crops and stock, and talking after the manner of the pessimist generally.

But this does not prevent him from discounting all possible dangers of weather or market by planting wide fields, investing money in the shape of labor and seed, trusting the future with a hopefulness that is an abiding evidence of his optimism.

The farmer reads the daily papers. He reads of war and its wastes, of large orders for American foodstuffs, of an excited market and of dollar wheat and 50-cent corn.

All these things tend to give the farmer optimistic views concerning the future. He believes if war goes on and decreased production, together with the wastes of war, in the warring countries continues, he will be called upon to make up the deficit. He knows, or thinks he knows, which leads to the same conclusion, that his crops and his stock are going to sell for higher prices this year than they did last. He is already preparing to enlarge his borders by widening his field of operations. He is going to buy new tools or cultivate his added acreage to crops. He is going to be more liberal in the matter of buying all things that make for his comfort and adornment. He has money left over from last year, his local banks are bulging with money that can find no outlet, and bankers are indifferent in the matter of additional deposits from which they cannot make additional dividends.

If the farmer has money lying idle in the banks of the country, he cares not for additional hoards to increase the loafing thousands that are now piled up, useless because they cannot be hired out to any one needing money. The mortgages were paid two or three years ago, the harness and farm implements bought at the beginning of the good times are becoming worn and shabby, the good

wife, the girls and the boys have become accustomed to better things and each year finds their education in this direction more advanced.

Because of these things, advertisers are already beginning to feel the additional pull of their advertising. Never before was so much advertising done as during the last year or two, never before did advertising pay so well.

The spirit of spending is in the air. Farmers, in common with all other classes, have learned to think of millions as commonplace, whereas but a few years ago a millionaire was looked upon with

awe.

The farmer has ceased to be penny wise and pond foolish. He has ceased to believe that he should count every penny and let the dollars take care of themselves. He has learned that he may spend freely and yet spend wisely. He is buying what he needs and oftentimes not only what he needs but what he wants without feeling the pressure of actual need.

Seven years ago we saw the dawn of prosperity. Wiseacres then told us that financial conditions moved in seven-year circles. The seven fat years have come and gone and yet another seven years more fat seem pressing on.

It is to the farmer we owe our pros perity. He has made our commerce what it is. He has bought the things that busy factories have turned out. He has learned to buy, and this lesson he will not soon forget.

Today the impetus of war-inflated prices is added to the years of prosperity to make the farmer a liberal buyer by putting into his hands the medium with which he can buy.

And he is going to take advantage of his opportunity.

Quality of Circulation "Notwithstanding the many good specialty articles that are appearing from time to time in AGRICULTURAL ADVERTIS

ING, none is devoted to that subject which seems to me of paramount importance and relevancy-quality of circulation," writes an advertiser to AGRICULTURAL ADVERTISING. "I have watched anxiously to see some master take up this subject for full treatment. It is doubtless somewhat comprehensive. It probably calls for a series of articles, touching such subjects as Editorial Duty, Attitude of Publishers Toward Advertisers, Free Readers, Subscribers' Confidence, not to mention others that occur to us. Such a series of articles in AGRICULTURAL ADVERTISING this year, appearing concurrently with "Making of the Business Book," "Business Types,'' "Classified Ads," and other interesting subjects, would prove of undoubted value and interest to every one in any way connected with advertising. Is there not among the publishers an unquestioned authority who will supply the want?

Repeating Instructions

Letters sometimes go astray, and when they do, there is always more or less stirring up of business relations. Recently a firm was looking for a letter of instruction, and, failing to receive it, wrote. A reply was received in a day or two to the following effect:

"Yours of the 4th inst. at hand. We wrote you a week ago giving full instructions and you should have that letter by this time. You will therefore proceed with the work in hand according to that letter, and we trust it will go forward with all promptness.''

But the letter had not arrived and didn't, so it was necessary to write again asking to have the instructions repeated. In all nearly a week's time was lost by the firm not repeating its instructions when the first inquiry came in, and besides they always had the suspicion that their correspondent was playing a waiting game.

Keeping in Touch

It is surprising sometimes to see in how close touch with small details the president is in big corporations. The president of a big electric company receiving the reports from some of the assistants, stopped him in the midst of a statement from one of the traveling

men.

"Where was he that week?'' "Clinton."

"Well, while $5 a week for cigars isn't usually excessive," went on the president, "I think it's a good deal to spend in a town of that size. Better look into that item further.''

Then he went ahead and put his O. K. on expenditures running up into the hundreds and thousands of dollars.

Advertising Makes a Fair Prosperous

Last year the management of the Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, Fair Association decided to spend some money in advertising, and accordingly it appropriated $2,730.32, of which $2,234.34 went to newspapers. At this time the society was $17,700 in debt, and the advertising appropriations looked pretty big. The advertising was placed in 112 newspapers in the territory from which the fair would attract attendance. The result was surprising. The number of paid admissions was never before so large. ceipts reached a total of $47,532.04, of which $21,102.48 was for admissions. The society was able to pay off $16,900 of its indebtedness, leaving only $800 outstanding. The officers who planned and executed this advertising campaign were re-elected, as they should have been, though some people thought (as they always do) that their advertising was too costly. But, comments the National Stockman and Farmer, results speak in such cases.

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